Chase was long gone by the time Mitzy’s helpers arrived early Monday morning. Bess Monroe, who was known to be grinchy around the holidays, studied Mitzy as she took off her coat and hung it up. Finally noting with delight, “You look really happy. I know you have a lot to celebrate this year, with the quads and all...”
Her twin sister, Bridgett Monroe McCabe, wife to Chase’s brother Cullen, winked. “I think it’s all that, plus the love of her life.”
Mitzy tilted her head, pretending to be perplexed. “And who would that be exactly?”
Bess chuckled. “Your former fiancé. The ruggedly handsome Chase McCabe, of course.”
Chase was making her happy, Mitzy admitted. So much so that she didn’t quite trust it. She didn’t want to go through her days waiting for the next seemingly insurmountable problem. The way she had before, when his ambition had constantly come between them. And she hadn’t really tried to understand where he was coming from. Never mind support his life goals or cut him any slack. Now, years later, she could see her dad had been right about Chase. He had always been destined for greater things...
“Speaking of Chase,” Bridgett said, pausing to see the memorabilia Mitzy had spread out over the kitchen island.
Too late, Mitzy realized she should have kept everything in the box until she was alone. “I was making up an album.”
Bess lifted a brow. “Looks like it goes pretty far back.”
“And includes the formal announcement of your engagement,” Bridgett noted.
Bess, who was normally as cautious as Mitzy, looked taken aback. “The program for your wedding ceremony—if it had happened.”
Mitzy recalled how upset and disappointed Judith had been that it hadn’t. “Are the two of you getting back together?” Bridgett persisted.
Mitzy lifted a hand, wordlessly pleading the Fifth. “I don’t know. I got this stuff out the other day, and I thought I should probably organize it, instead of just leaving it stuffed in a box.” She looked at the twins sternly. “And I would really appreciate it if you didn’t tell Chase.”
Identical grins flashed. “Is it a surprise for him?” Bridgett asked hopefully.
“A little one,” Mitzy conceded. Or big, if he took the gesture the way she privately hoped he would... She shrugged. “You know how sentimental people can be around the holidays.”
The twins watched Mitzy hastily gather things up and put them away. “So we repeat, are you and Chase getting back together officially?”
Were they?
It seemed so.
But then, she’d thought she would marry him, too.
And that hadn’t happened.
“All I can tell you is that we’re taking it one day at a time.” She found her bag and keys. “And speaking of today, I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to do the business meeting on my schedule, so I’ve got more help to relieve you-all at two p.m., if need be, and I’ve written out instructions for even longer than that, just in case...” Things are even worse at MCS than I already suspect, she finished silently.
Her friends wished her luck, and Mitzy was out the door.
Unfortunately, the meeting at the CPA was as bad as she had feared it would be. Having realized just how much help she was going to need to turn things around at MCS, she headed straight out to Chase’s ranch, where he said he’d be if she wanted to talk to him about the results of the internal audit.
To her surprise, she wasn’t his only visitor at the Knotty Pine.
MCS’s COO Buck Phillips’s dark green pickup truck was parked in front of Chase’s ranch house. The two men were standing on the porch, deep in what looked like a surprisingly friendly but sober discussion as Mitzy drove up and parked.
The two men shook hands.
Feeling shut out and betrayed, Mitzy emerged from her SUV.
Wondering if her life was about to implode all over again, she spoke to Buck first. “I’m surprised to see you all the way out here.” Especially since you’ve been telling me not to trust Chase! And were the one who encouraged me to get the audit from the CPA firm, rather than just let Chase do it.
Buck ignored her upset. “Chase and I had business to discuss.”
“Martin Custom Saddle company business?” Mitzy probed.
The men exchanged glances. Chase nodded slightly. Buck turned back to Mitzy. “I know about your father’s request to Chase and what Chase promised him in return, too. Gus told me before he passed.”
So blindsided that she stumbled as she mounted the steps, Mitzy gaped. “Is there anyone besides me who didn’t know?”
Chase caught her around the waist and helped her the rest of the way onto the porch. His grip as protective as ever. When he was sure she was steady, he let her go and stepped back. “Gus just talked to Buck, Judith and Walter, and me, Mitzy.”
Her indignation grew. “Well, that makes me feel better,” she huffed, the heat of Chase’s touch still making her tingle.
She whirled back to Buck. “So if you knew my dad wanted Chase involved,” she started emotionally, “why did you tell me not to trust Chase?”
“Because I didn’t think I could count on him to do the right thing.”
Buck picked up on the awareness simmering between her and Chase. His craggy features softened. “But I was wrong about Chase, Mitzy,” he said quietly. “I should have been encouraging you to listen to his advice all along, instead of letting my own emotions...about what Chase tried to do, years ago...blind me. You need to listen to him, too.”
Buck shook hands with Chase. “Let me know if you need anything else regarding the financials,” he said, man-to-man. To Mitzy, Buck tipped his hat, then settled it square on his head. “I’ll see you at the MCS holiday party on Saturday, if not before.” He headed off to his truck.
Tension simmered between Mitzy and Chase.
Seeming to understand he had made a big mistake in not telling her in advance of his meeting with Buck, Chase said, “Let’s go inside and discuss this.”
Mitzy was not in the mood to be placated. She folded her arms in front of her and forced a mirthless smile. “Let’s not.”
Chase regarded her steadily, no more willing to give up on this than he was on the two of them. “I can bring all the data out here that I just showed Buck,” he offered cordially, coming close enough to inundate her with his crisp leather-and-pine scent. “Or you can go inside and view it there.” He paused to let his words sink in. “It’s up to you.”
He had a point. She was being childish. Hadn’t she come over here to get his help and his advice? “Fine.” She brushed past him and strode into the wing that housed his business. A lot of which seemed to be conducted at home.
Mitzy stared in mute amazement.
There were huge placards on easels showcasing new marketing plans built around her dad’s legendary image. Financial data, much of it in red, showing the current miserable state of the business. Projections on what could be.
She exhaled roughly. “I’m guessing you already know what the CPA firm just told me—that my dad’s company is on the brink of bankruptcy.”
Chase nodded, appearing neither surprised nor alarmed. He took her hand. “Buck just gave me the details.”
“And...?” Mitzy resisted the urge to break down in tears.
He squeezed her fingers gently and led her over to sit down. “You need a million in cash to pay off the existing debt, give out holiday bonuses and make the kind of capital investment needed to get MCS not just back on sound fiscal footing but at the top of its game.”
He may as well have been talking about a billion dollars. It was so far out of her league. With a deflated sigh, she settled in the oversize leather reading chair. “I don’t have that,” she said glumly. “I don’t even have the money for the bonuses.”
Once again he did not look surprised. Or, she noted curiously, even particularly dismayed. “Do you have that kind of cash just sitting around?” she asked, incredulous.
Chase shook his head, once again the levelheaded businessman, driven to the core. He settled on the ottoman in front of her, so they were face-to-face and knee to knee. “No,” he said, all signs of the tenderhearted lover she adored fading. He paused to look her in the eye, even more serious now. “But I can get it if I do what your father asked of me and buy the company by year’s end.”
Buy MCS? When he knew she was opposed to selling out? To anyone?
His dispassionate attitude made her angry and scared. This was obviously all just another deal to him, an asset to add to his leather goods empire. To her, it was the culmination of everything her father had spent his entire life building.
She knew what her father had apparently told others he wanted. For her to be relieved of the enormous stress of running his company. But she still wasn’t sure ending her family’s connection to the company was the right thing.
Especially since she hadn’t really yet tried to effectively run MCS. Feeling disgruntled and upset, Mitzy searched for another option.
Maybe they needed to stop thinking about long-term plans. And concentrate on the immediate needs.
She rose stiffly and stepped to the side, to put a more suitable distance between them. “How about the two hundred thousand dollars I need for Christmas bonuses?” She moved behind the chair, curving her hands over the back of it. “Do you have that?”
Shaking his head, Chase stood, too. “Not without first purchasing the company. It’s not just me at McCabe Leather Goods, Mitzy. It hasn’t been for a long time. I answer to a board of directors and am required to demonstrate appropriate fiscal judgment in every action I take.”
She focused on the downward curve of his sensual lips. “Or...?” What were his risks? She knew hers...
His eyes narrowed even more. “If they perceive me as being reckless, or not exercising sound business acumen, the board could vote me out as CEO. I’d still have a fifty-one percent share of McCabe Leather Goods, but I would no longer be in control of everything that went on there, the way I am now.”
“And you’re not about to risk that.”
“No.” He continued to study her as if trying to figure something out. His expression turned as implacable as his voice. “I’m not.”
Feeling abruptly transported back to a much unhappier time in her life, when it had always been business—and ambition—first, Mitzy rushed past him. “I have to get out of here.”
He caught her arm, stopping her forward motion, and swung her around to face him. The reserve was back in his stormy blue eyes, along with lingering desire. “Mitzy, please. Sit down and calm down.” He brought her closer still, wrapping both arms around her waist. “Let’s talk about this, and go through all the options logically.”
She splayed her hands across his chest and worked to keep the disillusionment out of her voice. “Logically?” Emotion welled within her. “My father’s legacy is at risk, Chase!”
He continued to hold her stubbornly. The chivalrous, protective look was back in his eyes. “Exactly my point,” he countered with gruff affection.
She knew how convincing Chase could be. She also knew this was something she needed to handle on her own. Because if she didn’t at least try to figure out how to hang on a little while longer, she would always wonder if she’d given up too easily.
She extricated herself from his arms. Ignoring his entreating look, she shook her head at him. “I have to think...” Have to find another way... Heart pounding, she rushed out.
By the time she got back home, she knew what she had to do. She said hello to the new shift of volunteers and checked on the boys, then went into her father’s old study. The fact it had never been redone had once been comforting to her. Now, as she sat behind his massive wooden desk, she felt even more disloyal. As if she’d let him down. Worse, it seemed Gus had known in advance she would do so, just hadn’t had the heart to tell her.
Determined to do a better job of protecting the MCS employees than she had done thus far, she picked up her cell phone and asked to FaceTime with her stepfather.
Maybe because she never called him, especially during the workday, Walter picked up immediately. He was wearing a suit and tie, and was obviously in some kind of business meeting at his Dallas office.
He stepped all the way out of the boardroom, shutting the door behind him. “Mitzy, darling, what is it? What’s wrong?”
She told him. “If you could just loan me the money for the bonuses, Walter, so I can hand them out at Christmas—” and not have to sell out to Chase “—I promise I’ll pay you back every penny.”
Walter, who was usually quick to indulge her even when she didn’t want to be indulged, frowned. “If I did that, your mother would never forgive me,” he replied kindly but firmly.
Stunned, Mitzy sputtered, “But...”
Walter moved down the hall and into his private office, again shutting the door behind him, insuring them total privacy. “She’s my wife. My first responsibility is to her.”
“I’ll talk to Mother...” Mitzy promised desperately.
Walter sat down behind his desk with a sigh. “Please don’t. A conversation like that will only make you both unhappy. You know how she feels about the business.”
It was Mitzy’s turn to sigh unhappily. She parroted back, “That my father’s devotion to MCS caused the demise of their marriage.”
Walter nodded, looking just as concerned. “And right now, rightly or wrongly, she feels the very same thing is happening to you.”
* * *
Walter’s last words before they hung up ten minutes later—Chase is there to help you, Mitzy, let him—resonated with Mitzy throughout the rest of the afternoon.
She thought about texting him and telling him not to come by for the 8:00 p.m.-to-midnight shift, but couldn’t quite make herself do it.
The part of her that had been hurt before by him, the part that had played second fiddle to his business goals and ambitions, had to see if the same thing held true now.
So she bathed her boys early. One at a time. And somehow managed to use her system to do it all by herself. Without a tear being shed in the process.
Well, if you could discount the ones welling up inside her, that was.
Finished, she was just about to feed her four boys when the doorbell rang.
Chase stood on the doorstep. A cold front was blowing in. He looked as sexy as ever, with his cheeks ruddy from the cold winter weather, his hair windblown, his smoky-blue eyes intent. His cashmere sweater and dark jeans hugged the masculine lines of his body, and the collar of his suede jacket was turned up against his throat. The multicolored Christmas lights he’d helped string across her porch framed him spectacularly, evoking the wonder of the season.
Without warning, a rush of optimism flowed through her. Yes, she had huge problems but this was also the season for miracles.
As Chase caught sight of her, pleasure lit his handsome features. “I hope this isn’t the part where you shoo away the messenger,” he quipped.
Was she glad or unhappy to see him?
Mostly, Mitzy decided, she was feeling relieved.
Because he hadn’t quite given up on them.
Just as she hadn’t quite given up, either.
“Of course not,” she joshed back. “My manners are better than that.” She chuckled. “Usually, anyway.” Chase did have a way of getting under her skin like no one else ever had, or, she suspected, ever would. She stepped back to usher him inside.
Chase is there to help you, Walter had said. Let him...
He shrugged out of his jacket and hung it up. “How are the little dudes this evening?” he asked amiably.
“Ready for their eight p.m. bottles. Or at least they will be when they wake up. They drifted off again, after their baths.”
“Can I help?”
Mitzy walked over to the bassinets. All four had their eyes shut, but there was a little shifting here and there. Which meant they’d be awake soon.
She led the way into the kitchen and slid the bottles into the warmers to heat. “I’m sure they’d love that.”
Chase caught her hand and turned her to face him. “What about you?” he rasped as she collided with the hard sinew of his tall body. His eyes darkened mysteriously. “Would you love that?”
Emotion welled. The uncertainty from years before came back to plague her. She swallowed, cautioning, “Chase...”
“I know this is difficult for you, Mitzy. Your dad knew it would be. Buck Phillips, the rest of the employees, know it, too.”
Tears blurred her eyes. “I feel like I’m letting everyone down.”
“You’re not,” he assured gruffly.
She wished she could believe that. And yet...
Silence fell.
Chase tucked his hand beneath her chin and lifted her gaze to his. Sober, yet encouraging, too. “Will you trust me to do as your father asked, in the way that he asked me to do so?” His low gravelly voice sent a thrill down her spine. “That ensures his company and legacy go on as proudly as it always has, the MCS employees’ interests protected, too?”
Mitzy forced herself to momentarily put aside her fear of failure and do as everyone else had advised. “All right,” she said finally. “If you put together an offer, I’ll seriously consider it.”
“That’s all I’m asking.” He smiled with brisk assurance.
But was it?
Mitzy wondered.
* * *
To Mitzy’s disappointment, Chase was gone the rest of the week. She understood he had to be in Dallas–Fort Worth to put together the deal with the bank and his board of directors.
They spoke every night on the phone.
She still missed him.
More than when they’d ended their engagement.
And that scared her, too.
What had she done in opening herself up to this kind of pain again? And so quickly?
Had she been someone she was counseling as a social worker, Mitzy would have read herself the riot act.
She was still grieving the loss of her father, and therefore very vulnerable.
She had four infants to focus on.
A steady, secure life she’d spent a decade building.
And now, on a romantic whim and the unexpected, unusual need to be suddenly rescued, she was considering all sorts of things that would have been unthinkable less than a month before.
All those were big trouble signs.
Countered by the feelings Chase always engendered inside her.
The truth was, she wanted this to work out.
She needed them to find a way to be together, as they hadn’t before. And most of all she yearned for a complete family for her sons, the kind she had given up on when she signed up to have the babies on her own, via AI.
Chase had changed that.
He had shown her what it would be like to have a man by her side as she brought up her children.
She wanted that, more than was comfortable to admit.
So, while he was gone, she busied herself by alternately taking care of the quads and baking cookies for the MCS party. She even spent some time working on Chase’s Christmas gift—the memorabilia album that she had lovingly assembled, chronicling their early years together to the present.
It was sweet and sentimental. Just the way she hoped their future would one day be.
* * *
Chase sat at the table in his downtown loft, going over the deal with his mother, who had come to Fort Worth to do some holiday shopping. And, per his urgent request, stopped in to meet with him.
“Just give me the bottom line,” he urged, figuring if anyone could find another way, it would be his brilliant tax-and-business attorney parent.
Rachel sighed and sat back in her chair. “As you can see, the date of the sale is going to make a huge difference in the financials.” She paused to point out several different sets of numbers. “You don’t have a choice, and neither does the board, if you want to maximize capital and turn the business around.” She peered at him. “Surely, your own team of lawyers and accountants have already told you this.”
Chase rubbed at the tense muscles at the back of his neck. “They have.”
Rachel lifted a brow. “Then...?”
Chase shrugged. “I was just hoping for a different option.” The kind of miracle that would put both him and Mitzy on the same page.
Rachel took another sip of hot chamomile tea, guessed, “You don’t think Mitzy is going to like the required timeline.”
Tension knotted Chase’s gut. Which was unusual. Usually, he did not allow himself to get emotional about a business deal. “I know she won’t.”
“Given a little time, she’ll understand.”
Would she? Chase tried to picture that but couldn’t quite make it happen. He stood and went over to the sink to pour his own tepid black coffee down the sink. He forced himself to be as pragmatic as the situation required. “She may eventually be relieved to not worry about running the business, even from afar, though.”
“Even happy about it,” Rachel predicted.
That was a stretch. Chase shook his head. He looked at the Christmas photo of Mitzy and the quads he had taken on her bed. She had made it into a Christmas postcard for her friends. And given him a couple of the extras. One was tucked in a clear pocket in his briefcase, the other on the fridge at his ranch house.
He turned back to his mom, aware she was still waiting for his assessment. “I don’t think she’s going to be anywhere near ecstatic.” Even though he had made sure that she and her children would benefit financially, too.
Rachel’s brow furrowed. “Why not?”
Because he knew there was one aspect of the deal not in the financials his mother had just reviewed that Mitzy was going to find very hard to take. Especially when she already felt crushed and humiliated by her own naïveté and MCS’s near bankruptcy.
Rachel waited.
With a reluctant grimace, Chase explained, “She’s going to be upset because she thinks she always knows what’s best, and most of the time she does...”
“Just not in the business world,” his mother interjected quietly, getting up to reheat her tea.
Chase moved aside. “It’s not her thing. Any more than it really was Gus’s.” He watched his mother punch the beverage button on the microwave. “I mean, both are...were...incredibly talented, intuitive people, but when it comes to making the hard decisions that business sometimes required...”
“She can’t do it.”
Chase felt another punch in the gut. “Not so far.”
His mother removed her mug. “Probably not ever?”
Reluctantly, Chase forced himself to admit this was so.
Another silence fell. Rachel studied him over the rim, putting two and two together. “You think she will blame you for having to do it?”
He forced himself to be as optimistic as he always was when a long-held goal was within reach. Yes, there would be a few difficult moments. Incredibly difficult moments. But they would get past them. He had taken steps to see to that.
Figuring he could use his mother’s advice on this, too, he went to get the Christmas gift he had prepared for Mitzy. One that would allow her the kind of choice she would not have in the business deal.
“I’m hoping, when Mitzy has time to think about it, that she will see the MCS transaction as the beginning to the future we always should have had. And to that end...” He brought the present he was planning to give to Mitzy to the kitchen island.
As Rachel studied the two sets of plans and saw what he was proposing, she put her hand over her heart. “Oh, Chase...” She looked as overcome as he felt in that moment.
And then cautiously reserved.
Once again, in his eagerness to get ahead, he felt he might have made a mistake. He continued reading his mom’s expression. Sighed. “Too much?”
Rachel regarded him with the no-holds-barred maternal honesty for which she was known. “Given what else you’re about to do...what I imagine you have to do... I think you’re walking a tightrope with absolutely no safety net beneath you.”
Chase swallowed, aware that once again he had been put in an impossible situation. Forced to choose between what he knew in his heart was the only way to save a company otherwise doomed for failure, and the most important person in his life. “She still cares for me, Mom.” Still wants a life with me, as much as I want one with her. “I can feel it.”
Rachel gently patted his arm. “I saw that, too, the day we were all together cutting down our Christmas trees at your ranch.”
But was that devotion going to be enough?
Chase had to hope it was.